


Chiaroscuro Lie

by sugarby



Category: Death Parade (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 06:17:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14158614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarby/pseuds/sugarby
Summary: It’s uncertain where they’ll be years from now—ifthey’ll even still be a couple, but Chiyuki wants that mystery not to be looked at with an expiration date in mind.





	Chiaroscuro Lie

**Author's Note:**

> Ever so short piece I wrote two years ago and just never felt like posting. I don’t really like to keep my oneshots below 3k words but short stories can still be good. Really, this is just a way to keep my love for Death Parade and interest in Chiyuki and Decim alive.
> 
> _*Title insp by Life Is Strange._

Chiyuki doesn't care that she’s left their room in an unnecessary mess. Her clothes are creased and muddled in colors and posture, covering the patterned sheet of the bed she shares with her boyfriend but she’s absolutely fine with just lying on her bed like time isn't going anywhere.

Decim, her maturer and more sensible boyfriend, should and would scold her if he didn’t believe it’s against the ways of being Gentleman. Instead, he’s calm and too patient, “Chiyuki, your parents’ dinner party is set to begin shortly.” This isn't the second, third or even fourth time reminding her. He likes it, if he thinks of how he feels about going, about even being invited; the idea of a party but a respectable, clean one is his idea of fun. (His own parents will never really throw such an event, their fear of disappointing as entertaining hosts overwhelms them).

Chiyuki crosses one leg over the other—the universal position of someone relaxed, satisfied, not about to leave for an engagement.

“Chiyuki, they are surely expecting our company tonight. It will be impolite to arrive late.”

“Not if we aren’t going.”

“We _are.”_ To Decim, the idea of not attending a place he’s more or less sworn to is baffling. Almost unimaginable; this, too, is against the ways of being a gentleman.

“It’s just a little party, Dec.” Chiyuki inspects her nails—a classic, _universal_ action for a no-care attitude.

“That we’ve kindly been invited to.”

“By my parents, not the popular kids at school or the Queen of England.”

“We have already told them that we’ll attend.”

“Come on. It’s like taking a day off from school.” Chiyuki says but can immediately can, from the long silence, that Decim has no idea what that feels like because he’s not the type to ever do do such a thing. “Holy shit, you’ve never taken a day off school?”

“Compulsory attendance ensures a thorough education. Absence is usually given over the weekend period, except in cases of prolonged study sessions for underachieving students.”

“Okay, _Google_ , thank you.” Chiyuki says, thinking her boyfriend sounds like the voice of a search engine. “What you’re saying is you weren't the student who played hooky just to catch a break. You always studied hard and got good grades and...you know, we might not have been compatible back then. I kind of hung with the drifter crowd.” Decim says nothing. His silence, his stare he holds without blinking, makes her feel somewhat embarrassed, as if he’s silently judging her. “...A-Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with not going.”

Decim still would like to go; that’s obvious before he moves to the foot of their bed and rolls Chiyuki’s tights over his hands, and holds them near her feet willing to put them on her legs for her. He won't let a little _laziness_ get in the way. Chiyuki, though, is struck by what she calls a great idea; she leans up briefly to grab Decim and pull him down as she falls back on the bed. Decim allows himself to lie on her for some seconds before he starts lifting up but she’s securing him against her chest.

“Chiyuki.”

“Decim.”

“What are you intending to achieve by restraining me here like this?”

“You’re making me sound like a _bad girl_ and you don’t like bad girls. Or maybe you do….” Chiyuki starts a trail of soft kisses across his jaw.

“Chiyuki, the dinner party—”

“Let’s have our own. Right here. Just us.”

“The spontaneity of hosting our own gathering will leave us short on guests, thus the evening will be lackluster.”

“Dec, I’m trying to seduce you here.”

“Pardon my interruption.”

“...Is it even working?”

“Not in your intended way.” Decim admits. Chiyuki groans and her head falls to the pillows. “Though it’s likely due to the fact that I already love you. Therefore, I am already attracted to you. And I will be very grateful to you if you honor our agreement to attend the—"

“Oh my God. Okay. Alright.” Chiyuki sighs and, looking up at her boyfriend, knows two things: one) though generally stoic, he can be quite smooth with words and two) she’s defeated. Underneath all those sweater vests he wears, he’s really a sweet-talking deviant, isn’t he?

 

_*  *  *_

 

"Chiaroscuro."

"Um, sorry?"

"I quite like it in this painting," The guest neighbour and friend of her mother, Mrs Goro, elaborates. Her elderly hand over the painting in soft, fascinated strokes, tracing its tones and shades (that, to Chiyuko, look like a Rorschach test). "The way the artist uses both light and dark—total opposites—and combines them. Many can try but I've seen nothing quite like this."

Chiyuki tilts her head, "The churro...what?" she knows how stupid she must seem and look with her puzzled expression and wine glass sloshing about in hand, held carelessly and topped generously.

Decim, by her side, corrects her in his deep, sophistical voice, "Chiaroscuro. It's treated commonly to art work, the effect of dark and light colours mixing together." 

Mrs. Goro smiles, "Chiyuki, your gentlemen is quite the scholar."

"Thanks, I picked him out myself."

"I'm surprised. With this man being so refined, sophisticated, knowledgeable and well presented, it makes me wonder more where the two of you find the time to meet on equal ground." Mrs Goro's hazel eyes flicker to a wider form, "Chiyuki, don't drink too much, your mother's roast is almost done."

The faux smile on Chiyuki's face, put on as the neighbour walks to the dining room, is so tight anyone can think it's stuck like that. Seeing her daughter looking so distressed, her mother comes over, places a hand on her shoulder, "Chiyuki, Decim, having a good time?"

Decim opens his mouth to give polite and positive appraisal.

Chiyuki's facade drops with a long groan, "Mom, why'd you have to invite that woman?!"

"Chiyuki, indoor voice, please."  
  
"She thinks I'm not good enough for Decim! She didn’t say that quite literally but she _implied_ it! She’s wondering what’s keeping him from breaking up with me!”

"I’m sure she was just offering her concerns.”

“More like watching the clock to see if we’ll last through dinner!”

Her mother despairs, mouth open in surprise and her hand lifting her daughter's for soothing pets, "Nooo, don't say that! Ohh, look, Chiyuki, you and Decim make a very lovely couple, but, well..." her mother looks between them, hesitant to give her opinion.  "At least at first glance, you two seem like you’d be _worlds_ apart because your interests are so different and you're different to each other. Decim is quiet but outspoken and polite and considerate. Chiyuki, you're... _a bit_ louder. You tend to keep things to yourself and the only thing I've seen you read is a magazine."

"So what are you saying?”

“Look, honey...are you two going somewhere?" 

"Unbelievable!”

"Well, are there any big, fancy, expensive plans?"

"So that's it! You and everyone else here don't think we’re gonna going to last!"

Her mother shamelessly avoids answering by turning to Decim with a fixed smile and asking, "Decim, Dear, would you like some cheese before dinner?"

Decim says, "Thank you, that would be—"

Chiyuki lets out a strangled groan this time, with her hands near to yanking on her long hair out of frustration. "Fine! Go ahead and ignore me, but I've got news for you and everyone else here!"

"Honey, you're shouting again." Her mother says, eyes worriedly darting left and right in case of onlooking guests.

“I’m pregnant!”

Mandatory silence comes.

Her mother sputters, trying to speak properly, "P-Preg—w-what do you...Chiyuki, you— _really_?!" 

"You heard! Decim and I are having a baby! So there!" Chiyuki doesn't have to look at her boyfriend to know his usually stoic face is within every right to look bewildered. She knows she’s betraying him like this to save herself.

That’s one more point against their relationship; unlike her, Decim is selfless.

Chiyuki buried her head and flees to out of the room and in to the hallway, throwing herself in to the bathroom underneath the staircase. 

Her mother decides, “Decim, I’ll let you handle this. Dinner will be waiting for you both on the table when you’re ready.”

“Understood.” Decim nods and walks out.

 

_. . ._

 

“I’m an idiot, Decim!” Chiyuki blurts the second the door opens and neat, white hair comes in to view familiarly. She figured he'd follow her and part of her is glad he did, it's sweet, but it's also embarrassing to show this side of her to him. She's always had a tendency to just unload all her emotions in one with little to no filter as an adult. "Why did I say that? Crap! What are are we going to do?!”

“It will be fine.”

“No! Don’t you get it?!”

"I understand the circumstances and why you're concerned, but I cannot fathom the problem with being truthful.”

"Oh, excuse me, you should've told me you were enjoying all the judging they were doing in there!"

"You’re overreacting." 

" _Overreacting_?! Decim, I just told my mother and her friends that we're going to have a baby!"

"I'm aware." 

"Good! Are you also aware that we haven't had sex in the last month or so, making it impossible?!”

"Actually, it’s been precisely eleven days.”

Chiyuki covers her face with her hands and wants to scream in to them because _God, oh God_ , _he's missing the point entirely_. 

Decim asks, "Chiyuki, is it your wish to be impregnated by myself to assist in the lie being plausible?"

" _No_." 

"Then is it your wish for us to go along with it in despite that?"

"You don't mind?"

"I will go along with it to please you, Chiyuki." 

"Not what I asked."

"I'm sorry then." 

"Don't be. This is who you are. I should've figured asking you wouldn't get me far."

"Again, if it will please you then I will be your accomplice."

Chiyuki wouldn't believe this if she were anyone else. Her boyfriend—the amazing, gentlemen that he is—isn't fond of deception, but he's willing to lie for her...selflessly. Lovingly. It makes her heart feel tight with guilt but also warm. She gets up to wrap her arms around him and kiss him, reaching up on the tips of her heels a little to reach. It doesn't need to be said that Decim prefers when Chiyuki is happy, and so he'll do just about anything for her to feel like that.

Chiyuki thinks she's been stupid but she feels _lucky_ , looking up at him. "Thanks, Dec, but that would make me even more of a horrible person." 

“You aren’t. _Desperate_ , perhaps.” Decim's honesty earns him a harmless hit to the chest. "But your lie is coming from a good place. And I imagine, should we go forward with telling it, that it will last until you’re reassured about our relationship.”

Chiyuki nods along, liking how that dresses her up in a good light, "Yeah, okay."

“Do you perhaps have any sort of idea at this present time?”

“I just told my Mom, and whoever else happened to hear in the next room, that we’re going to have a baby. What do you think? Ugh, can we just...we should go.” Chiyuki gets up to walk but then stumbles in her heels.

Decim catches her by the arm, radiating like a prince sworn to always protect her. Chiyuki’s always been passionate about children’s books like fairytales and sometimes, the oddities aside, Decim shows similarities. “I’m not a fan of seeing you so worked up like this.”

“You should see yourself. You don’t usually give anything away but I can tell, looking at you right now, lying makes you kind of nervous." 

"Slightly, yes."

“ _Liar_. You look so shaken,” Chikyuki pokes his forehead and he blinks, mildly surprised by her causality. “But a lie this big kinda scares me too.” She looks down at her stomach in estimation. She laughs, “I'll just eat enough to keep a full stomach for the next day or so." 

"That will not work." 

"You gonna shoot down all of my suggestions?”

“Just the ludicrous ones. But do not take that as my questioning _your_ sanity, Chiyuki.”

"Thanks.” Chiyuki always finds herself laughing with Decim, at how he gathers words together and his bluntness hits at the right times. “Let me check with you one last time. You’re okay with people thinking the worst of us?”

"It matters to me how we ourselves perceive our relationship, not a third party."

Chiyuki stares, speechless.

"And I believed you would have agreed."

"Decim...can you tell me where we are right now?”

“In your parents’ bathroom under the staircase.”

“ _Decim_. C'mon, we’ve been together for awhile now. You can tell me if it bothers you that we’re not moving in a certain direction.” 

“Rather than whether or not it bothers me, you have yet to give me suitable indication that a progression in our relationship is what you desire."

"It's not! Not right now...maybe someday. I don't know." She can't be sure of what she wants in years to come. It saddens her to think that there could be a time where she won't feel this way, where she won't be with him, yet she can't guarantee that she wants it forever. "I just want everyone to stop looking at us like we've got an expiration date over our heads." Then she wouldn't have felt desperate enough to cough out a lie; she wouldn't have tried to turn a decent guy like Decim in to a liar. On that regard, it’s perhaps sensible to see how she can be a bad match for him. "I'm so sorry, Decim.”

 "Humans are prone to say uncharacteristic things when they are sleep deprived or stressed."

"You say that like _you're_ not human." 

"Will it displease you to know that I am an android or other-worldly life-form?" 

"Oh God." 

Decim does one of the rarest things ever for him—he smiles. "I assure you, Chiyuki, neither my mother nor my father have told me otherwise in the twenty-seven years that I have been living." 

Chiyuki closes her eyes and sighs. She smiles, "I love you, Decim. Whenever I think I'm ready for marriage or kids or whatever, I'll let you know."

"And I as well, Chiyuki.” 

"Guess the cat's gonna have to come out the bag. I'm not looking forward to telling people that we lied. But we’ve hid in here long enough. They’ll get the wrong idea before our food gets cold.” She can tell by Decim’s expression that he doesn’t completely get it, and that makes her chuckle.

"I'm sure they will be merciful."

"You don't know my mother well enough yet. Hey, we still have that bottle of wine they gave us before, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"The last thing I wanna do is confront my mom sober. It's only fair, I was kind of drunk when I lied in the first place."

**Author's Note:**

> Part of me wonders why I even wrote this while another part is relieved it's finally posted.
> 
> Thanks for reading if you did :)


End file.
